Your last point is actually the BIGGEST PLUS for PVG. I personally dislike all the over grown duty free shops in the terminal. They are becoming an eye-sour for someone travel frequently. In PVG the feeling of space is great and you can actually have an open space to sit in the terminal. I found it very relaxing.

The lounges in PVG/PEK are actually very good. I would say above average. There are many places have worse lounges (Warsaw, Bucharest, Kiev, Rome, Milan, CDG, Dusseldorf, Berlin, Frankfurt, all American lounges to name a few).